When I was younger (high school age or earlier) I often engaged myself in worldbuilding. Either for a hypothetical future D&D compaign, or as an end unto itself. I stumbled upon notes from this period, and upon reading noticed some common themes that kept recurring through the various worlds and ideas. For the sake of future me, I’m summarizing some of these themes here in hopes they may spur future creativity.

Karsis - A decadent sword-and-sorcery city state; was once the seat of a vast hegemony. Some iterations have it named Slagpale and built around a chained tarrasque with an economy based on its perpetual butchery (obviously inspired by the Salt in Wounds campaign setting).

Beryllys - Riverine city-state ruled by mage-kings. Probably inspired by the city of Beryl from The Black Company, which was the site of a sorcerous artillery battle.

Cthulu sleeping under the ice cap of the Arctic Circle. Indigenous people have shamans called “whisperers” who serve the dual purposes of long-distance communication between bands, and whispering lullabies to the eldritch horror to keep it from waking up.

Bendik - A diarchy with Viking aesthetics.

Kho-Sedem - Desert-dwelling aesthetics who worship the sun, and are trying to assemble a new sun (read: massive fusion weapon) on top of a desert mesa. Homeworld / Kushan / Hiigaran vibes.

The Rangrid League - Isolationist polity built on top of the remains of coastal oil rigs. Perpetually crumbling into the sea as they build updwards. Still pump fossil fuels, ichor, and other useful fluids which they trade for trinkets and food.

The American Antebellum South but Sparta with helot slavery, krypteria, etc.

Jagyar Hussars - Winged hussars who patrol the prairie.

A Puritan Commonwealth in New England with four branches of government: legislative, executive, judicial, and ecclesiastical.

A lot of theorizing on technological progress sans fossil fuels. Lodestones / magnets, voltaic piles / leyden jars, neon lights, telegraph, crystal radios. Quebec as a superpower from damming the Hudson Bay? I stole this from Peter Watts’ Rifters.